Friday, 22 July 2016

Hello, hello to one and all. We welcome you to this week's post in the long running Carreducker blog. I say long running because, while looking at our stats, I re-read our first post which was in October 2008. We are 8 years old. Amazing! We want to send out a massive thank you to all of you who have read the blog over this time. It has been a journey for us personally, but has, to our surprise and immense pride, proved to be popular with you guys, the lovely shoe folk of the world - in this last month, we have had 47,000 page views! We are blown away by that and are so glad that there are so many people out there in the world who share our love of this fantastic trade.

Making shoes is no easy task, so when we get emails from people saying they have made shoes on their own from our blog and from videos online, we are absolutely delighted.

So, what do we have for you this week? Well, we have some new products on our Tool Shed online tool shop

Due to popular demand, we have introduced shoe covers. Specially made for footwear, these covers are really easy to use. You simply heat them up with a hair dryer and slip them over your lasted uppers. As the plastic cools, it shrinks into place. We like to run a line of clear tape around the feather edge for more protection

A Pair of Shoe Covers - £2.75 per pair

They are great for protecting delicate or pale leathers which are easily marked or stained. They also work really well for fabric shoes

Please take a look at this post for detailed images on how to use them

And check out this video on Youtube on how to use them (the file was too big for Blogger to handle!)

They cost £2.75 per pair and are available in 2 sizes from the Tool Shed

Medium UK sizes 6 to 9

Large UK sizes 9 to 13

Do you have trouble lasting around the toe or the heel? Too much leather? Can't get in between the nails to get rid of those little creases?

These are a great piece of kit. Really well balanced in the hand, they have long handles for extra grip, helped by the sharp teeth in the jaws which grip even the smallest piece of leather, Finally the keyed hammering foot does not slip off the nails

They cost £73 and are well worth the investment

Lastly, we have the big brother of the narrow nosed lasting pliers. Aimed at more advanced shoemakers, these lasting pliers are the best we have found. With the same attributes as their smaller sibling, they are the ones we use - I have had mine for 18 years and they are still going strong with no sign of wear.

They cost £79 and you will definitely not find a better pair

So, if you need these or any other shoemaking tools, lasts, or leather, please take a look at the Tool Shed

We ship anywhere in the world

And that's about it for this week, so, until next Friday, happy shoemaking!